


Ignorance is Bliss

by PoorUnfortunateSoul



Series: KuroKen Month [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 06:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7256293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoorUnfortunateSoul/pseuds/PoorUnfortunateSoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroo almost wishes Kenma never confessed. </p><p>AKA the classic case of "Kuroo doesn't want to ruin his and Kenma's relationship because of his stupid feelings."</p><p>-<br/>KuroKen Month Week 1- School</p><p>Ch. 1 - Team<br/>Ch. 2 - Court<br/>Ch. 3 - Friends <br/>Ch. 4 - Homework<br/>Ch. 5 - Graduation</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

   “You like him, right?” Yaku asks, leaning in to Kenma.

 

     Kenma glances away from Kuroo and takes a sip of his Capri Sun.

 

     “Yeah,” he says honestly, setting his drink down in exchange for whale crackers.

 

     Kuroo handed out snacks to the team for a good practice. Kenma’s pretty sure he’s just trying to get all the food he got from his grandmother’s passing last month out of his house. The practice had to have been one of their worst.

 

     There’s no way in Hell Kenma is going to complain about free food though, he decides as he munches on a handful of the cheese crackers.

 

     Yaku jams his fingers into Lev’s side, who frowns when it knocks the Capri Sun he’d been balancing on his tongue onto the ground.

 

     “It is _that easy_ to confess your feelings for someone,” he says, obviously hinting.

 

     But Lev is nothing if not oblivious, so it goes right over his head. He nods eagerly, but still doesn’t tell Yaku about his apparent crush on him.

 

     “You have to suck all of the air out of it,” Kenma says, gesturing to Lev’s juice pouch, “to get it to stick better.”

 

     “Okay!” Lev says cheerily.

 

     He slurps the juice with a new purpose, scrunching his eyebrows together in concentration. Yaku face palms and Kenma grins behind his wrist.  

 

     “You should tell him,” Lev says, pulling the pouch from his tongue with a crude popping noise.

 

     Kenma shrugs and the amused smile drops.

 

     “I wouldn’t want to ruin our friendship, you know? That’s a lot of time to put into a relationship for it to fall apart.”

 

     Yaku nods understandably, but Lev squints at him.

 

     “Isn’t there a chance that it’d get ruined anyways, with him going off to college?”

 

     “ _Lev!”_ Yaku hisses, kicking the oblivious giant under the table.

 

     “What?” he asks, “I’m just saying, I know more couples that have stayed together after one of them goes off to college than friendships.”

 

     Yaku makes to hit him again, but Kenma rests his hand on his knee to stop him.

 

     “He has a point,” Kenma says, dropping back in his chair when Yaku lowers his leg again.

 

     “So, are you going to ask him?” Lev asks, leaning forward eagerly.

 

     “Mm, maybe,” Kenma mumbles.

 

     Yaku smiles. It’s one of his gentle, motherly smiles. When he smiles like this, Kenma can almost see what Lev sees in him, despite all of the bruises along his long legs. _Almost_ , being the key word.

 

     “Well, whatever you decide, I’ll be behind you, a hundred percent.” Just like that, the smile is gone, and his face is back to being all frowns and hard lines. “Come on, Lev, you still have receives to practice.”

 

     Lev’s groan rings loudly in the gym, and the rest of the team snickers at his misfortune. Kenma watches them go, amused smile back in place.

 

     Kuroo meets his eyes from across the room, and Kenma’s smile turns shy.

 

     _Maybe I will tell him,_ he thinks.  


	2. Chapter 2

 

   That night, Kenma stays with Kuroo for extra practice. The older boy was a bit surprised when Kenma offered, but it’s not every day that the blond volunteers.

 

     Kenma hands shake with nerves as they practice, but if Kuroo’s notices, then he doesn’t say anything. Kenma knows that his sets aren’t up to their usual status, but Kuroo seems to chalk it all up to tiredness.

 

     Kuroo offers to quit and go home a few times, but Kenma knows that once he puts down the ball, Kenma will have to confess. Well, technically, he doesn’t _have to_ , but he knows if he doesn’t do it now, he never will.

 

     Kenma’s not sure how much longer standing next to Kuroo, holding his hand when they’re in public and Kenma’s anxious, and platonic cuddling will be enjoyable before it turns to pain.

 

     Shoyou’s told Kenma all about how much it hurts when Kageyama’s close enough to touch, but he can’t make move because he waited too long and Kageyama’s with someone else. He’s seen the ache on Bokuto’s face when he watches Akaashi talk to his boyfriend, and the frustration on Yaku’s when Lev won’t take the hint.

 

     Kenma doesn’t know much about this whole dating thing, but he’d be willing to learn if it means keeping Kuroo near. He thinks about Oikawa’s dramatic whining about much it sucks to “watch his Iwa-chan with another girl,” and his chest aches.

                                                               

     Watching Kuroo as he pumps his fist in celebration when he hits Kenma’s – rather sloppy – set, Kenma decides that they’re whining doesn’t seem so over-dramatic anymore.

 

     The bottle blond completely misses the next ball Kuroo tosses to him, and the older boy frowns.

 

     “Hey, you okay, Kitten?” Kuroo asks, coming closer to rest his hand on Kenma’s cheek.

 

     The skin under the pads of Kuroo’s fingers burn, and Kenma takes a deep breath.

 

     “Can I talk to you about something?” Kenma murmurs, grabbing Kuroo’s wrist to move it from his cheek.

 

     Scrunching his eyebrows, Kuroo nods. Kenma nods back, and plays with Kuroo’s fingers, worrying him; Kenma only plays with Kuroo’s fingers when he’s nervous.

 

     “I like you, Kuro,” Kenma mutters, and half of him hopes that Kuroo doesn’t hear him.

 

     But he does, and his face goes from concerned to smirking.

 

     “Well, I would hope so,” Kuroo says, taking his hand from Kenma. The botte blond makes a small noise in protest at having his anxiety relief taken away. “We have been friends for years, after all. It would suck to know that you were just pretending this whole time.”

 

     Kenma sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

    

     “No, you idiot; I mean I like you _romantically._ ”

 

      Kuroo’s smirk slides right off of his face.

 

     “What? No you don’t.”

 

     Kenma frowns.

 

     “Yes, I do.”

 

     “Don’t.”

 

     “Do.”

 

     “ _Don’t_.”

 

     “ _Do._ ”

 

     “ _Don’t.”_

“I think I know what my own fucking feelings are Kuroo!” Kenma yells, moving closer to get into Kuroo’s face, “You know how much I hate when people tell me how I feel, so why are you trying to! You never do stuff that makes me uncomfortable.”

 

     “Yeah, well, neither do you but here we are!” Kuroo snaps.

 

     That quickly makes Kenma deflate, and his chest feels like it’s scolding with the heat of his blood _._

 

     “Me having feelings for you makes you uncomfortable?” Kenma says, but the question is mostly rhetorical. “Is it because it’s disgusting to you? For a boy to like another boy?”

 

     “What?” Kuroo sputters, “No, Kenma, I’m _gay._ I couldn’t care less if you liked boys.”

 

     Kenma nods slowly.

 

     “So you like boys, just not.. me.”

 

     “That’s not it either,” Kuroo says, raking his hand through his hair; Kenma has stressed him out. “It’s just… We’re _friends,_ Kitten, and…”

 

     “I’m not asking you to like me back,” Kenma murmurs, “I just thought you should know.”

 

     “I wish you wouldn’t’ve told me.”

 

     Kenma nods again, squeezing his eyes shut. Kuroo places his hand on the bottle blond’s head.

 

     Kenma doesn’t open his eyes until the gym doors shut. 


	3. Chapter 3

   “And you just _ran_?” Bokuto asks, staring at Kuroo, dumbfounded.

 

     Kuroo shrugs. Then nods. Then groans.

 

     Bokuto shakes his head in that wild, disapproving way of his. It makes Kuroo feel even guilty than he already does.

 

     “I can’t believe you just ran!” Bokuto squawks, “You’ve been going on about how much you like him for _years_ now, and when he’s the one to confess, you high-tale it out of there! Are you stupid?”

 

     Kuroo watches, half-amused, half-offended, as Bokuto’s flailing makes his ice-cream slide off of the cone and onto the sidewalk. Bokuto blinks owlishly, and brings his cone down eye-level, to stare at it in amazement.

 

     “Yikes,” Kuroo teases, taking an over-dramatic lick of his own.

 

     Scowling, Bokuto stops their walking to throw his cone in a trashcan.

 

     After running from the gym, Kuroo had called Bokuto for an emergency ice-cream trip in town. Now, they’d made it back to Kuroo’s (and Kenma’s, but he’s trying not to think about that) street.

 

     The messy haired teen is almost afraid to walk back home, because Kenma, as observant as ever, is sitting in his own front yard. Which, of course, just happens to be right next to Kuroo’s.

 

     “Can we go in around the back?” Kuroo asks nervously, breaking up the staring contest Bokuto was having with his spilled ice-cream.

 

The huffy teen looks up, and can barely make out Kenma’s figure at the end of block. He looks to his friend, and sighs exasperatedly.

 

     “You can’t avoid him forever,” Bokuto points out.

 

     Kuroo scratches the back of his head and nods.

 

     “I know. I just. Not now. I just ran out on him after he confessed to me, dude; that’s pretty harsh.”

 

     “Which is exactly why you should go talk to him and apologize,” Bokuto says, but he doesn’t stop Kuroo from heading to his backyard.

 

     They manage to get inside without a confrontation from Kenma, but it doesn’t make Kuroo feel better like he thought it would. If anything, he feels even worse for dodging Kenma’s feelings twice. And in one day, at that.

 

     The two friends hole up in Kuroo’s room, and they play video games. It’s much more competitive than when he plays with Kenma.

 

     With the bottle blond, he knows that there’s no way he can win in the first place. However, with Bokuto, there’s a chance he just might. That’s not to say that Bokuto isn’t good at video games, because he is; Kenma just has hours of experience that Bokuto doesn’t currently have under his belt.

 

     Bokuto lets Kuroo use the distraction for a while, because he knows his messy haired friend is exactly the same as Akaashi; you can’t pry a conversation out of him, you have to wait for him to decide to talk on his own.

 

     Sometimes it’s frustrating, but Bokuto has an almost unbelievable amount of patients when it comes to his friends. _Especially_ for him.

 

     Eventually, Kuroo runs out of games to distract himself with. Unfortunately, his collection is nowhere near as impressive as his blond best friend.

 

Every time he thinks about expanding his collection, a new game comes out that captures Kenma’s attention. Kuroo always ends up spending his money on that, instead of himself.

 

     The thought of the excited but slightly guilty looking face Kenma always gives him when he hands him a new game makes his chest ache.

 

     “I really like him,” Kuroo says, pushing his way past Bokuto’s cart.

 

     Bokuto makes a frustrated noise as a powered up character runs him over and squishes him.

 

     “I hate Mario Kart,” he declares, growing ever more upset as his character is pushed into the water.

 

      Kuroo comes in first, and they both decide to call it quits.

 

     “If you like him so much, why did you say no?” Bokuto asks, ejecting the disc from the Wii.

 

     Sighing, Kuroo throws his head back over the edge of the back of the couch.

 

     “I don’t know,” he lies. Bokuto gives him a look.  “Okay, I do know. It’s just, we’re best friends, you know? What if we get into a stupid argument and break-up, and he hates me forever?”

 

     Bokuto raises an eyebrow and drops down onto the couch next to him.

 

     “Why are you so sure that you’d be the one to fuck up?”

 

     Kuroo gives him a look, and then they’re both snickering.

 

     “Bro,” Kuroo says.

 

     “I know,” Bokuto cackles, “That kid wouldn’t do anything to piss you off in a million years.”

 

     Kuroo sighs, and the mood is solemn again.

 

     “That’s the thing, though, I piss him off _all the time_. I don’t even mean to do it, it just happens.”

 

     Bokuto clucks his tongue, “But you guys also fight, _all the time_ , but you’re still friends. You guys have to have had major fights somewhere in your friendship, but you guys have made up and you’re still friends. You guys have worked for years to create this system; why do assume that’ll stop working just because you’re in a different kind of relationship?”

 

     Kuroo groans and drops his head against Bokuto’s shoulder.

 

     “I’m so confused.”

 

     “I know,” Bokuto says, “but I’m just saying, if Akaashi suddenly came up to me one day and confessed, I’d jump at the chance.”

 

     Kuroo lifts his head to rest his chin on his friend’s shoulder instead.

 

     “Aren’t you worried that it would backfire?”

 

     Bokuto shrugs the shoulder Kuroo’s not resting on.

 

     “’Course I would, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing that says that, romantic feelings for one another or not, our friendship wouldn’t end anyways. There are plenty of other things that can damage a relationship, so why not take what you can out of it while it’s still there?”

 

     Kuroo hums in thought, “You kind of smart when you want to be, you know that?”

 

     “Thank you!” Bokuto says cheerfully.

 

     “I said, _kind of_.”

 

     “You’re fucking rude.”


	4. Chapter 4

 

   Kenma isn’t sure how today will play out. He’d tried to apologize to Kuroo multiple times yesterday, once in person and about a thousand through text, but the older boy never took the bait.

 

     He’d left Kenma flopping in the wind, wondering if they were even friends anymore. Kuroo hadn’t waited for him to walk to school today, which was bad. On the other hand, though, he had texted Kenma to remind him to take his anxiety meds this morning.

 

     Really, the more Kenma thought about it, the more confused he got. Every time he thought he figured out whether or not they were going to be okay, Kuroo did something else to mess up his train of thought.

 

     Like smiling at Kenma when he’d reached their street, but then avoiding him by going in through the back. And texting him goodnight, but not waiting for him in the morning, or answering his apologies. And not walking him to school, but reminding him to take his pills.

 

     Kenma groans, and a few of his classmates look at him oddly. Normally, all the eyes on him would make him anxious, but his mind is too preoccupied with Kuroo to even have enough room to think about being anxious.

 

     The school day ends eventually and, to his surprise, Kuroo is waiting for him at the gates. He all but stomps over to him, but the older boy grins like nothing happened.

 

     “Hey, Kenma!” he chirps happily.

 

     Kenma grunts and starts walking faster. Unfortunately, Kuroo’s legs are longer, and he catches up easily.

 

     Kenma’s obviously sour attitude doesn’t seem to faze Kuroo at all, which pisses Kenma off even more than he already was. The older boy just chatters on like normal.

 

     Maybe to him, things are normal, Kenma muses. He is always quiet on their walk home, after all. Actually, Kenma’s quiet almost always, which probably means that the silent treatment isn’t his best option here.

 

     Still, there’s some sort of childish satisfaction from ignoring Kuroo’s questions this time around. They’re all probably rhetorical anyways, considering he almost never indulges Kuroo in conversation after a long day of forced socialization.

 

     “… Anyways, I figured that if you weren’t busy, you could come over and help me with the homework. I know you’re better than I am at history,” Kuroo rattles on.

 

     Kenma feels the anger circling in his stomach spike his blood, and he stops short. Kuroo does as well, used to having to stop randomly for Kenma to gather his bearings when he’s exhausted.

 

     “Are you serious?” Kenma spits.

 

     Kuroo laughs good-naturedly, “Well, yeah. I mean, I’m no idiot or anything, but you’re better than I am at it, so-“

 

     “That’s not what I mean!” Kenma yells, “You fucking _rejected_ me in the gym, and then you ran! Then you smiled at me, and then avoided me! And _then_ you text me goodnight and ignore me, _again_ ; finally, you don’t walk me to school, but you remind me to take my meds, and after all that, you’re acting like nothing happened? I am not your play thing, Kuroo, you can’t just pick me up when you’re bored and then put me down when you find something more worth your time!”

 

     Kuroo only smiles and takes a step closer. Kenma eyes him wearily, like a trapped animal. The older boy places his hand on Kenma’s cheek, and he flinches.

 

     “Kenma,” Kuroo murmurs, “I know that you’re trying your best to ignore me, but I _really_ need you to listen to me right now, okay?”

 

     Kenma swallows thickly and nods, heart hammering in his chest.

 

     “I just told you that I return your feelings, and asked you on a study date, with promised apple pie at that, at the bakery downtown.”

 

     “Oh,” he says dumbly, making Kuroo chuckle.

 

     “I need a yes or no,” he says, brushing an eyelash off of Kenma’s cheek.

 

     Slowly, Kenma nods.


	5. Chapter 5

Kuroo and Yaku’s graduation day has a bittersweet tinge to it. Kenma can taste it in the back of his throat while he smiles for pictures with Kuroo, per Kuroo’s parents request. From the slightly glassy look in Lev’s eyes, he knows he’s not the only one feeling it. The real kicker is that Lev hasn’t even made a crack about Yaku’s height. Not _once._

 

“Alright, mom, that’s enough,” Kuroo teases, waving his mom off.

 

Kenma’s glad. He likes Kuroo’s mom, more than he likes most adults, but all the smiling is making his face hurt.

 

He stands off to the side while Kuroo’s parents finish their pictures. Kenma stands next to Lev, and revels in his boyfriend’s smile.

 

“You know Yaku likes you too, right?” Kenma says slowly, looking up at Lev.

 

“What?” he startles, and Kenma almost loses his nerves.

 

Steeling them, he says, “Yaku. He likes you, too. He’s been trying to get you to confess for months now.”

 

Lev deflates next to him.

 

“Then why didn’t he just confess to me!” Lev whines.

 

“Pride,” Kenma says, shrugging.

 

Lev grumbles unhappily next to him for the rest of the ceremony, but he sees Lev and Yaku leave, hand in hand. Kuroo snakes his arms around Kenma’s waist, and they gaze up at the school together. Kuroo, as a student for the last time.

 

“I’m going to miss seeing you everyday,” Kenma admits, shyly.

 

“I’ll still talk to you everyday,” Kuroo promises.

 

Kenma doesn’t say anything, because they both know that he’ll hold him to that.

 

“Let’s go,” Kuroo says, dropping his arms.

 

They both walk away, quickly falling into their usual pace. Kenma slips his fingers through Kuroo’s, and holds on tight. He shyly glances up at his boyfriend, and the same smile he’s seen all day, though a bit softer, is still on his face.

 

Kenma hopes that Lev finds the same happens he has from his confession.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Time is a made up concept, so therefore it doesn't matter," I say, updating this a year later.


End file.
